FASHION Magazine

Beyonce didn’t let the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy stop her from going out with a bang(s) over the weekend in New York City.

The singer/queen of our hearts, who we’re used to seeing with many different and new hairstyles, stepped out with freshly cut bangs to accompany husband Jay Z to a Brooklyn Nets basketball game on Saturday night.

Wearing Giuseppe Zanotti heels, an Yves Saint Laurent ring and a geometric printed top and pants by Tibi, we think she’s been taking a look at some of the prints that have recently been on trend for fall.

Backstage notes Cacharel designers Ling Liu and Dawei Sun referenced Amelia Earhart as the muse for the ’20s-era coats, tapered trousers and knits with a masculine edge. The collection’s colour palette—heavy on the hypothermic blues—and kaleidoscopic prints were inspired by ice crystals forming on an airplane window. See the inspiration and beauty breakdown »

The post Beauty magnified: Examining the aviation-inspired beauty look on Cacharel’s Fall 2012 runway appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Today’s debut of Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent cast a strange shadow over the entire day. Nothing else seemed to matter. Not Stella McCartney’s micropleated dresses with large blobs of blue, green or orange. Not Clare Waight Keller’s layered tunics and pleated ruffles. Not the sequinned Rorschach splashes on Roger Vivier’s platform mules. Not even Louis Vuitton’s new fine jewelry collection inspired by the locks lovers leave on bridges.

Everyone was counting the hours, waiting for Hedi.

Finally the front row of the Grand Palais filled. Marc Jacobs. Alber Elbaz. Riccardo Tisci. Kate Moss. Salma Hayek. Jessica Chastain.

Historic? You got that right.

See the suits and matching accessories now »

All the cool girls from the best 1980s and 1990s movies wore suits. In Heathers it was a colour-coded way of life, and for Cher Horowitz, the power suit was a staple in her amazing technologically advanced closet. Everyone, and we mean everyone, knows her classic yellow plaid mini-skirt blazer combo.

Enter Fall 2012.

When you ask most women which beauty product they couldn’t live without on desert island it usually comes down to either a great mascara or a favourite lip balm. The choices makes sense: a full, fluttery set of lashes brightens the eyes and draws attention away from under-eye circles or blemishes, and nothing’s worse than the thought of being trapped with chapped lips and not a single drop of lip balm in sight. Regardless of whether or not you’re facing exile to a desert island, you’ll certainly appreciate the tips in this week’s Beauty Fix.

Read on for the full fix! »

You can expect Yves Saint Laurent to pull out the big guns when it comes to fragrance campaigns (just think of Sophie Dahl’s infamous Opium ad), so it comes as no surprise that Jessica Chastain‘s campaign for Manifesto, YSL’s latest fragrance, is high-impact.

See our accessories A-list now »

JUMP TO: BROOCHES | BRIEFCASES | POINTED PUMPS | CHOKERS | TOP-HANDLE BAGS | KNEE-HIGH BOOTS | LOAFERS

See our editors’ beauty picks »

After the hate-athon that ensued after Yves Saint Laurent unveiled a photo of its revamped Saint Laurent Paris logo, two fashion heavy-hitters have come to the defense of creative director Hedi Slimane.

Both Karl Lagerfeld and Arizona Muse have given their stamp of approval to the new fuss-free, sans-serif logo, which was pictured atop two black boxes stacked on white marble on the brand’s Facebook page Monday. The logo, which is a nod to the brand’s Rive Gauche era back in the ‘60s, is the exact opposite of the swirly Yves Saint Laurent font that’s been a mainstay for the brand up until this point.

Leave it to Valerie Steele, the first person to ever tout a fashion studies PhD, to tackle an industry-related question that’s rarely been explored before: why is it exactly that modern fashion history has had so many iconic gay designers?

Steele, a bona fide fashion expert who has pioneered fashion-related academia, said she wants to celebrate gay designers in an upcoming exhibit at The Museum at FIT, where she sits as director and chief curator. Along with these designers’ deserved nod of recognition, she wants to explore the ways in which their sexuality has helped develop the industry into what it is today.

It’s true: even when compared to other creative fields, many if not most of fashion’s influential leaders are gay, including (but obviously not limited to) Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.

Despite the fact that generally speaking, this density of gay designers is common knowledge, Steele points out that no one has ever really delved further into the question of why so many gay people seem to flourish in the industry.

“[…] Nobody’s ever really thought consciously to put the gayness back into fashion history and say, ‘Why are there so many gay people in fashion?’ and ‘Is there a gay aesthetic?’ and ‘What have been the influences of having so many gay people in fashion?'” Steele told Fashionologie.

It’s an interesting and potentially groundbreaking point: given fashion’s runway-to-streets trickle down effect, is it even possible that the fashion industry’s early embracing of homosexuality has helped encourage similar acceptance outside of the industry’s confines? And Steele’s question of aesthetics makes us look at some famed designs in a completely different light: for example, could a straight man have ever created Le Smoking, or was Saint Laurent able to create such a game-changing design thanks in part to his sexuality?

Though we doubt these questions could ever be answered in full, given Steele’s past thought-provoking exhibits, it will definitely be interesting and insightful to see how she navigates her way through these questions.

To celebrate fashion’s biggest season, we’ve put all of the most major ads (So much image slicing!) together in one space. We’ll be adding new creatives as they become available, so be sure to check back for all the biggest and best.

See all the campaigns »

It should come as no surprise that Hedi Slimane’s much talked about collections for Saint Laurent Paris (his revamped moniker for the legendary Yves Saint Laurent) are being kept well under wraps as he prepares for their debut this fall. Fortunately for us, a handful of select retailers were invited to view his first designs […]

The post All the reactions we could suss out so far from Hedi Slimane’s first mini Saint Laurent Paris presentation appeared first on FASHION Magazine.